French engineer Technip has delayed the handover of the Dung Quat oil refinery, Vietnam's first such facility, to its sole investor Petrovietnam because of "technical issues", a local newspaper reported on Monday.

Nguyen Hoai Giang, head of Binh Son Petrochemical Refinery Co, which operates the 140,000-bpd Dung Quat plant, said there were technical issues that had yet to be resolved. Technip was cooperating with Petrovietnam to overcome them, the newspaper Tuoi Tre quoted Giang as saying.

In early January, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai ordered Petrovietnam to take over the refinery on Feb. 25.

The newspaper did not say when the plant would finally be turned over to Petrovietnam.

Dung Quat started test runs a year ago but operating problems triggered shutdowns of the facility twice, in August-September and December, for checks and equipment replacements. Operations resumed in January and the refinery has run at full capacity from Feb. 19.